The Lottery A Rite Of Passage Analysis

At times, while it may not be clear, symbols may seemed like it’s the most insignificant thing in the story until the very end where in it is revealed to the readers. “The Lottery”, a story written by Shirley Jackson, is about a town that is practicing the act of sacrificing people for prosperity through the use of a lottery. The two main symbols that was used in this story is the rocks that the kids gather up, which represent a rite of passage, and the object used in the lottery itself the paper with a black spot, which represent death. Near the beginning of the story, it is noted that the boys are gathering up rocks in one place. At first, readers will most likely look at it and think that the kids are using the rocks as a form of some sort of entertainment or as a mean to kill time: “they tend to gather …show more content…
Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example”(Jackson 290). It is revealed at the end of the story that those same rocks are used to stone Tessie to death. The rocks represent a rite of passage for the boys because it teaches them what to do when it’s time for a lottery so that one day when they can pass on the tradition to their son. The paper with the black spot, which was made by Mr. Summer the night before, is used to indicate the winner of the lottery. However, this isn’t a normal lottery because the winner is to be subjected to be stone to death, therefore, the paper actually represent death. Like the rocks, it wasn’t obvious at first because most likely, the readers assumed that it was simply a tool used to deduce who the winner would be. It wasn’t until toward the